County workers strike for higher pay

About 700 county workers throughout Mendocino County went on strike Tuesday, setting up picket lines at visible points in Ukiah, Willits and Fort Bragg.

At issue was a 10-percent pay cut many county employees had taken voluntarily for years before the last contract with SEIU, signed two years ago, made the cut permanent. Now that the county's budget has a nearly $9 million reserve, union members want the county to restore those wages.

"We were all for the cuts when the California economic situation was bad," said county Cerre Knox, a foster care eligibility supervisor with county Social Services, who has worked for the county for 13 years. "We don't want anything spectacular; we just want to support our families."

As a supervisor, Knox said she's seen only a 5-cent pay raise in the past six years. She has three children.

They're not willing to pay us a livable wage," she said. "We just want to live. You can't live on $16 an hour."

Workers represented by Service Employees International Union, Local 1021, gathered with signs on South State Street at Gobbi Street near the county's Social Services buildings, at the entrances to the Mendocino County Superior Courthouse on North State Street and at all the ingress/egress points to parking lot surrounding the county Administration Center building complex on Low Gap Road as early as 6 a.m.

The one-day strike, which included an estimated 400 workers in Ukiah alone, was planned to continue until 5 p.m., according to SEIU Local 1021 spokeswoman Anna Bakalis. She said of the members who voted, 90 percent were in favor of a strike after the county declared impasse in the labor negotiations last week.

Bakalis said she couldn't release the actual number of county workers who are members of the union who voted, or the number who voted for a strike.

Kyle Knopp of the Mendocino County Executive Office estimated that about half of the SEIU Local 1021 members in several county departments had chosen to cross picket lines and continue work Tuesday.

"We're disappointed that the union decided to strike," he said. "We think it's not helpful for the morale of our employees, and we think it's not helpful for the services we provide to the public."

The county Social Services offices, while they appeared short-handed, continued to handle business. A lone couple in the Child Protective Services lobby was seen, and employees at the welfare office's counter worked through a line of about 15 people Tuesday morning at about 9 a.m.

Union members blocked the driveways at the county Administration Center complex on Low Gap Road as they walked slowly with signs. A large SEIU sign could be clearly seen on the corner of Low Gap Road and Bush Street, reading, "Do the right thing."

At the Ukiah courthouse on North State Street, passers-by honked in support as union members picketed in front of the building, at a side entrance and across the streets. Deputy public defenders and deputy district attorneys -- members of a separate union that represents those county workers -- opted not to cross the picket lines, according to court Auditor April Allen, "but the court was able to handle all scheduled business with the assistance of management personnel from the Public Defender's Office and the District Attorney's Office.

Most criminal court cases scheduled for Depts. A and B were heard in Dept. H, where judge Ann Moorman presided. While a jury heard evidence in an ongoing trial in Dept. B, protesters could be heard outside drumming, chanting amid honks of support.

Union members had planned to speak to the Board of Supervisors at 1 p.m., and then to march from the county Administration Center to Alex Thomas Jr. Plaza on School Street for a 3 p.m. rally.

The Board of Supervisors comes back from its lunch break at 1:30 p.m. When informed about this, Bakalis said the speakers would adjust their schedule accordingly.

"I think that goes to show the seriousness of the SEIU Oakland leadership, which is not serious at all," Knopp said. "They pull over $330,000 a year from county workers in union dues, and they don't even know the board's schedule."

The county's general fund reserve of nearly $9 million is good planning, he said, and is aimed to ensure "stable services and stable jobs."

The county believes the union's strike is illegal because it wasn't a noticed action, according to Knopp. Tuesday's strike, however, came as no surprise, he said, as county negotiators knew "many months ago" that the union was "moving toward a strike action."

Bakalis said no further strikes were officially planned, but the union "might have to escalate our actions" after Tuesday.

Tiffany Revelle can be reached at udjtr@ukiahdj.com, on Twitter @TiffanyRevelle or at 468-3523.